What Does Google Analytics Track by Default?

After installing a Google Analytics 4 tracking code, your website immediately begins collecting a wealth of data about what people are doing on your site. Understanding this default data is the first step toward turning raw numbers into actionable business insights. This guide will walk you through exactly what Google Analytics tracks right out of the box, covering who your visitors are, where they come from, and what they do once they arrive.

How Google Analytics Collects Data By Default

At its core, Google Analytics works using a small piece of JavaScript code (called the Google tag or gtag.js) that you place on your website. When a user lands on a page, this script runs and sends information about the user and their session back to Google's servers. This information is packaged into "events."

In Google Analytics 4, almost everything is tracked as an event - from a page view to an on-site search. This event-based model is more flexible than the session-based model of its predecessor, Universal Analytics, and gives you a much clearer picture of the user journey. The "default" tracking we'll discuss here consists of events that are automatically logged by GA4 as soon as the tracking code is live.

Who's Visiting Your Site? User and Geographic Data

The first set of default data answers the fundamental question: "Who are my visitors?" GA4 automatically gathers anonymous information about the attributes of your users.

Geographic Location

By analyzing a user's IP address, Google Analytics can determine their approximate geographic location. You can view this data at different levels of detail, including:

• Country
• Region (State or Province)
• City

This is incredibly useful for understanding if your marketing is reaching the right geographic areas. For example, a local business in Dallas can check its reports to see if most of its traffic is coming from the Dallas-Fort Worth area or if it's unintentionally attracting visitors from other countries who are less likely to convert.

Language

GA4 captures the language settings from the user's web browser. This helps you understand the primary languages spoken by your audience, which can inform decisions about translating your website or creating multi-lingual ad campaigns.

Device and Browser Information

Understanding which technology your visitors use to access your site is vital for ensuring a good user experience. By default, GA4 tracks:

• Device category: Desktop, mobile, or tablet.
• Browser: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.
• Operating System: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, etc.
• Screen Resolution: The resolution of the user's screen.

If you see that 80% of your visitors are on mobile devices, you can prioritize optimizing your site's mobile experience. Conversely, if most of your converting customers use a desktop, you know to focus on perfecting that layout.

A Note on Demographics (Age and Gender)

You may see reports for Age and Gender in your GA4 account, but this data isn't active by default on a brand-new installation. To collect this information, you need to enable an optional feature called Google Signals. It's a simple toggle in your Admin settings, and when activated, GA4 will use aggregated and anonymized data from users who are signed into their Google accounts and have Ads Personalization turned on. While it's just one click away, it's an important distinction to know what is strictly included in the default setup versus what requires a simple activation.

Where Are They Coming From? Default Traffic Sources

One of the most valuable standard reports is the Traffic Acquisition report, which tells you how users discovered your website. GA4 automatically analyzes incoming traffic and groups it into several "Default Channel Groupings."

• Direct: This is traffic from users who typed your website's URL directly into their browser or used a bookmark. It's often a sign of brand awareness and returning visitors.
• Organic Search: This includes visitors who arrived by clicking on a non-paid link from a search engine like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. Strong organic search traffic is a key indicator of effective SEO.
• Organic Social: This is an excellent addition in GA4. It groups traffic arriving from clicks on non-paid links on major social media platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• Referral: This channel includes visitors who clicked a link to your site from another website (that isn't a search engine or a known social media site). This helps you identify which blogs, partners, or directories are sending you traffic.
• Organic Video: Traffic that comes from non-ad links on video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.
• Email: This is usually traffic coming from link clicks within emails, however, this channel functions best and most accurately when you ‘tag’ your newsletter links with UTM codes.

These default channels give you a clear, high-level view of which marketing strategies are most effective at driving people to your site.

What Are They Doing? On-Site Behavior and Engagement in GA4

This is where GA4 truly shines. It offers a collection of pre-configured "Enhanced measurement events," offering more detailed insights into on-site actions without requiring any additional code.

Key Engagement Metrics by Default

GA4 moved away from older concepts like Bounce Rate (though it has since been added back in by popular demand) in favor of more positive, engagement-focused metrics. These are all tracked by default:

• Engaged sessions: A session is considered "engaged" if the user was active for more than 10 seconds, had a conversion event, or viewed at least two pages.
• Engagement rate: The percentage of all sessions that were engaged sessions. This metric helps you understand what portion of your visitors are truly interacting with your content.
• Average engagement time: This metric shows the average duration your website was the main focus in the user’s browser. This is much more accurate than old "session duration" metrics, as it pauses measurement when a user switches to another tab.

Enhanced Measurement Events (On by Default)

When you set up a new GA4 property, Enhanced Measurement is enabled by default. This feature automatically captures a set of common and important user interactions on your website. Forget trying to configure tracking for every little action - GA4 handles these for you.

• Page views (page_view): Arguably the most fundamental event, this is fired every time a page successfully loads in a user's browser. It is the basis for measuring traffic to specific pages.
• Scrolls (scroll): GA4 automatically logs an event when a user has scrolled more than 90% of the way down a page. This signals that the user engaged enough with the content to reach the bottom.
• Outbound clicks (click): When a user clicks a link that directs them away from your website domains, GA4 registers an event. This is perfect for tracking clicks to affiliate partners, social media profiles, or any other external resource.
• Site search (view_search_results): If your website has a search function, GA4 will track when a user performs a search. Reviewing these search terms reveals exactly what users are looking for that they couldn't immediately find.
• Video engagement (video_start, video_progress, video_complete): If you have YouTube videos embedded on your site, GA4 will automatically track when users play them, how far they watch (in quartiles), and when they finish.
• File downloads (file_download): Clicks on links to common file types (like .pdf, .docx, .xlsx, .zip) are automatically treated as a download event, helping you measure interest in lead magnets, brochures, or case studies.

Finding Your Data: A Quick Tour of Default Reports

All this default data doesn't just sit in a database, it populates a suite of pre-built reports in the GA4 interface. Right after installing, you can go into your account and see:

• Reports Snapshot: A dashboard summary of your key metrics for users, traffic, engagement, and conversions over time.
• Realtime report: A live look at who is on your site right now, where they came from, and which events they are triggering.
• Acquisition reporting: Find all the data about your traffic sources here, broken down by user acquisition and session acquisition.
• Engagement reporting: This is where you can explore page views, landing pages, and the performance of all your automatically collected events.
• Monetization reporting: If you install Google Analytics with an e-commerce platform such as Shopify or WooCommerce, then default metrics like revenue and taxes can be collected here.
• User attributes reporting: In the 'Demographic' and 'Tech' sections, a collection of reports will help you dig into user data like location, language, and device category. These details can be found in the ‘Tech’ details reports to see how your users access and use your content.

Final Thoughts

Straight out of the box, Google Analytics 4 provides a remarkably deep set of data about your audience. Without any advanced configuration, you instantly gain visibility into who your visitors are, how they found you, and what behaviors they take on your site. This default information alone is enough to start making smarter, data-driven decisions for your business.

As you become more comfortable, you can start tracking custom events, but mastering these default reports is the essential foundation. Knowing what channels drive traffic, which pages are most engaging, and how users interact with key features gives you a huge advantage. Eventually, you may want to connect your GA4 data with other sources like your ad platforms, CRM, or e-commerce store to see a complete picture. While that process often involves manual spreadsheets and hours of work, new tools are making it dramatically simpler. For instance, at Graphed we’ve made connecting all your data sources effortless, allowing you to ask questions in plain English - like "Compare Facebook Ads spend vs Google Analytics revenue for this month" - and get instant dashboards and reports without the headache.